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Domestic Relations Law § 77-i · Title 3. Enforcement

Hearing and order

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — Law content up to date as of August 7, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)

§ 77-i. Hearing and order. 1. Unless the court issues a temporary emergency order pursuant to section seventy-six-c of this article, upon a finding that a petitioner is entitled to immediate physical custody of the child, the court shall order that the petitioner may take immediate physical custody of the child unless the respondent establishes that:

(a) the child custody determination has not been registered and confirmed under section seventy-seven-d of this title and that:

(i) the issuing court did not have jurisdiction under title two of this article;

(ii) the child custody determination for which enforcement is sought has been vacated, stayed, or modified by a court of a state having jurisdiction to do so under title two of this article or enforcement of the determination would violate subdivision one-c of section two hundred forty of this chapter or section one thousand eighty-five of the family court act; or

(iii) the respondent was entitled to notice, but notice was not given in accordance with the standards of section seventy-five-g of this article, in the proceedings before the court that issued the order for which enforcement is sought; or

(b) the child custody determination for which enforcement is sought was registered and confirmed under section seventy-seven-d of this title but has been vacated, stayed, or modified by a court of a state having jurisdiction to do so under title two of this article.

2. The court shall award the fees, costs, and expenses authorized under section seventy-seven-k of this title and may grant additional relief, including a request for the assistance of law enforcement officials, and set a further hearing to determine whether additional relief is appropriate.

3. If a party called to testify refuses to answer on the ground that the testimony may be self-incriminating, the court may draw an adverse inference from the refusal.

4. A privilege against disclosure of communications between spouses and a defense of immunity based on the relationship of husband and wife or parent and child may not be invoked in a proceeding under this act.

Source of truth

Edition
Law content up to date as of August 7, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
Official file
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/DOM77-I
Text hash
sha256 009f04de032afe2fce55cc0451f10b387eabe85e15455438da7448318a2535cf
Composed by
gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.